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      10-17-2008, 12:03 PM   #7
E90M3CDFR
First Lieutenant
United_States
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Drives: E91 Sportwagon
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: NoVA

iTrader: (1)

For most EU countries, you usually (but I'm sure there are exceptions) need to be able to fall under some exception as to vehicle license/registration for a permanent registration of the car (it could be military, through a SOFA as mentioned, or diplomatic status, or through an international organization, through a HQS agreement).

If you don't have that, you will need (usually) to comply with that country's vehicle safety specifications for permanent registration (for a temporary use, I think you can get away with a US-spec car for about a year in some EU countries, like Germany, but you will have to take back out before then).

To permantly register the car, you may have to make minor modifications, that may however be quite costly for a new car. I know in some countries I've been posted to, to register a US car you outside of status you may have to replace things like the glass (!) in the windshield and windows (long time ago)--this sometimes became a problem if you wanted to sell the car to a national of that country, but sometimes people were willing to do that to buy a Corvette for example. U.S.-spec lights used to be a problem in some places as well. So much of what BMW makes today is worldwide compatible, BUT, that may not mean much when you go to register if the VIN does not come up as a European specification vehicle. Just hope Dutch bureacracy is more flexible than others and are able to deal with that.

A European BMW dealer should be able to service the car without a problem for the most part (they may have issues with telematics and the like), but since you won't have the maintenance package there (BMW in Europe won't most likely honor the BMW USA plan), you may well be better off going to a good independent shop for a lot of work. I'd highly recommend sending maintenance items in whatever household shipment you have (esp if duty-free), as parts/oil etc are much more expensive here (but if you have duty-free mailing privileges, less of a problem), not to mention of course, gasoline!. Also keep in mind that you also will likely not have a BMW warranty for Europe, as I don't think the BMW USA/NA warranty will apply in Europe (in any case the warranty here is two years/unlimited miles, so it may almost be a moot point).

Hope this helps; you might also want to call the Embassy of the Netherlands in Washington; there may be someone there who may have better answers specific to the Netherlands. On the bright side, Zandvoort is a great place to track the car.
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